Never Been Kissed
by theboyandgirlwhowaited
Summary: After Patricia locks herself up in her room all day when the whole school finds out that she's never kissed a boy, Mick Campbell is sent up to talk to her. One-shot, MICKTRICIA with some Peddie. Slight play on the iCarly episode 'iKiss.'


**Summary: **After Patricia locks herself up in her room all day when the whole school finds out that she's never kissed a boy, Mick Campbell is sent up to talk to her. One-shot, MICKTRICIA with some Peddie. Slight play on the iCarly episode 'iKiss.'

**A/N: **Yeah, so...I don't really know where this came from...at all. I was just thinking about making an HOA fanfic sort of like the iCarly episode "iKiss" because I was having iCarly/Seddie feels during class and then I remembered that Patricia never kissed anyone before Eddie and then I wondered what would have happened if word got around that Patricia had never kissed anyone...and then this happened.

And it's kind of perfect timing because the last iCarly episode airs in less than twenty hours -sobs- and a new House of Anubis promo aired two days ago so yeah.

**Never Been Kissed**

"Mara, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Patricia and Amber groaned.

"Mara, you've got to start picking dare every once and awhile." Shlyly, Mara shook her head, her dark curls bouncing. Patricia sighed. "Fine. Who do you think is the most attractive boy at our school?"

Mara blushed. "Um...I guess...Mi-Jerome." She snuck a quick glance at Amber. Fortunately, the blonde was too busy painting her nails to realize that Mara had _almost _admitted she thought Mick Campbell, the boy Amber had fancied for the past two week, was the most attractive boy in school.

Patricia wrinkled her nose in disgust. "The Slimeball? Geez, Mara. I thought you had more taste than _that._"

Mara bit back a sigh of relief, glad that Patricia had bought her lie. "Relax, all I said was that he was attractive. It's not like I'd ever date him or anything."

"Whatever, your turn."

"Don't pick me!" Amber cried, carefully stroking each toenail with her nail polish brush. "I'm busy!"

Mara rolled her eyes. "Fine. Patricia, truth or dare?"

Patricia always picked dare. She liked to take chances, and besides, dares were more fun, anyways. But this was Mara Jaffray, and everyone in Anubis House knew that she was _horrible _at coming up with dares.

For about the millionth time over the past several days, Patricia wished that Joy were there. She always thought of the _best _dares - other than Patricia, of course. But unfortunately, Joy was on a two-week long cruise around Europe. It wasn't that Patricia didn't like spending time with Mara and Amber - she did. They were two of her closest friends. But Joy was her _best _friend, and it always felt like something was lacking when she wasn't around.

Finally, Patricia sighed. "I hate to be a downer like Mara, here, but, I'm going to go with truth."

"Hmm..." Mara tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Oh, I've got one. Who was your first kiss?"

_Crap._

The room went dead silent as Mara watched Patricia expectantly. Patricia avoided the brunette's gaze, playing with one of the loose strings on her pillow case. _Just pull a name from somewhere. Anywhere. No one will know. _But for the first time in Patricia's entire life, she couldn't think of a good enough lie.

The truth was, Patricia's lack of kissing experience was her biggest insecurity. She was fifteen years old, and she'd never been kissed before. Not even when she was little and playing house or something. Amber had been kissed, Joy had been kissed, and even Mara had been kissed. Everyone else in the house had already had their first kiss, except for her.

Sometimes she wondered if there was something wrong with her. She'd had boyfriends before, but they were short and had never led to anything serious. She often wondered if she was just so physically unappealing that no one wanted to kiss her, or if she was just too intimidating for anyone of the opposite sex to come within five feet of her.

"Patricia?" Mara said, cocking her head to the side and bringing Patricia out of her thoughts.

The redhead chewed her bottom lip, and took a deep breath.

"I haven't had my first kiss."

"_WHAT?!_" Amber screeched, looking up at Patricia and accidentally swiping her entire toe with the pink nail polish brush. "Crap!" Amber cried quietly, grabbing a paper towel and wiping the pink stain off of her foot.

Mara's eyes widened as she stared at the red head. "You've never had your first kiss?"

Patricia shook her head, internally cringing.

"Patricia, you're fifteen years old!" Amber cried as she tossed her paper towel into a nearby trash can. "You've _got _to have been kissed _sometime _before now."

Patricia shook her head again. "Nope," she said, popping out the _p_, but it came out sounding less confident than she'd meant for it to.

"Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal," Mara said assuredly. "I mean, I didn't get my first kiss until last year, and that wasn't too long ago. You've got plenty of time, and besides, my aunt went her whole life never kissing anyone until her wedding day during the whole 'kiss the bride' bit."

"Is your aunt a weird, conservative freak?" Amber accused.

Mara stared down at the rug as if it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the room. "No," she said unconvincingly.

"Exactly!" said Amber, turning back to Patricia. "Patricia, whatever you do, don't listen to her because this is _not _okay! You're _fifteen_!"

"Amber!" Mara cried in horror, nudging the blonde.

"What? It's the truth!"

Patricia sighed. "Look, you guys. I know it's really weird that I've never had my first kiss before. But honestly, it doesn't really bother me that much." Amber just shook her head, adding another layer of paint on her pinky toe. "Just, let's keep it between the three of us, okay? No one else knows?"

Mara bobbed her head. "Scout's honor," she said, holding up three fingers.

Both of them turned expectantly to Amber. "Of course I won't tell anyone," she agreed, rolling her eyes, but nodding all the same.

Patricia sighed in relief.

**x.X.x**

"Please don't kill me."

Patricia turned away from her locker to face Amber, who was shifting back and forth from foot. She lifted an eyebrow. "Why?"

The blonde nervously chewed on her bottom lip, which was a very un-Amber like thing to do. Amber never chewed her lips - she scolded everyone who did, and then proceeded to give them a five-minute lecture on how terrible it was for your appearance and well-being. "Oh my God, you're going to kill me," Amber wailed.

Patricia's eyes narrowed. "Amber. _What. Did. You. Do?_" She hissed.

Amber took in a deep breath. "ItoldMick'sfootballteamthatyou'dneverkissedanyoneandoneofth emtoldJeromeandhespreaditaro undandnowIthinkthewholeschoo lknows."

A heavy silence hung in-between them as Amber clenched her eyes shut, preparing herself for the blowout.

Then,

"You _WHAT?_"

"Patricia -"

"I can't _believe _you!" Patria screeched. She grabbed Amber by the arm, her nails purposefully digging into her skin, and dragged her into the girl's restroom. "You _promised _you wouldn't tell anyone!" She cried once the door to the bathroom had closed behind them and she'd made sure that they were the only ones in there. Patricia actually wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed that everyone knew - she'd been receiving weird looks and snickers and whispers behind her back all morning.

"Technically, I didn't," Amber said in a small voice, rubbing her sore arm. "I _said _I wouldn't tell anyone...but I didn't _promise._"

"Oh, well that makes it all okay, doesn't it?" Patricia said, venom lacing every single word. Amber cringed. "Amber, what in the world could have _possibly_ possessed you to tell _the entire football team_?"

"Well I went down to the fields to visit Mick, and the whole football team got roped into the conversation...and the subject led to first kisses and we were all talking about it and I said who my first kiss was and they said who theirs was and someone said he thought it was rather dorky that there were some students in our year that had never been kissed and I, being the great friend that I am, said that it wasn't too horrible for someone to never be kissed because you hadn't and you weren't a dork and I _know _I shouldn't have said it but it just slipped out and I begged everyone not to say anything but one of them...I guess it was Robert and trust me _I will kill him for this..._told Jerome and...and Jerome told the whole House and the whole school," she finished, cringing. Patricia's expressions was growing angrier and angrier every second. "Patricia, I'm so, so, sorry," Amber squeaked out. "But...but you said you didn't even really care, so-"

"Of _course _I care, Amber!" Patricia exploded. "I'm fifteen years old and I've _never been kissed _before and now _the whole school knows _and I'm sure they all think I'm the biggest loser on the planet!"

"I'm sorry, Patricia," Amber said desperately. "You really have no idea how sorry I am...it was a stupid thing to do, if I could take it back-"

"Well you can't do that, can you?" Patricia said furiously. "Do you know what, Amber? Everyone is right about you. You don't care about anything but yourself and your popularity status." Bending down and picking up her bag, Patricia briskly exited the bathroom, not even stopping to look back at Amber's hurt expression.

**x.X.x**

As it turned out, the whole school really _did _know that Patricia had never been kissed before. Everywhere the redhead went, a crowd of stares and smirks followed her. The smart alecks in her classes would casually drop hints during the lessons.

Like, "Can anybody tell me who the first Prime Minister of Great Britain was?"

"Whatever you do, don't ask Patricia. She doesn't have any experience with 'first' anything."

Or something like that.

Patricia didn't talk to anyone the whole school day - not Mara, who attempted to give her a pep talk in every class, and certainly not Amber, who tried to apologize every chance she saw her. Patricia found herself wishing over a million times that Joy was there. In retrospect, it wouldn't have really fixed anything, but she probably would have felt just a little less miserable.

Patricia would have liked to say that she didn't go down without a fight, but that wasn't really the case. She sent death glares at anyone who said anything and shoved all the younger years to the side when they snickered at her, but she could do nothing else but simply ignore the others. She'd never been so embarrassed in her life - even her teachers seemed to know, from the way Mr. Sweet gave her a sympathetic glance when she turned in her test at the end of biology.

Wasn't the student body of Creepy Towers supposed to be afraid of her? Weren't they all worried that Patricia Williamson was going to beat them up?

They didn't seem like it.

When the day was finally over, Patricia quickly exited through the back doors of the school and entered through the back doors of Anubis House, not speaking a word to anyone as she stomped up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door shut with a bang and promptly falling onto the bed to scream into her pillow.

Patricia Williamson officially hated everyone.

**x.X.x**

Anubis House was by far the most interesting house at Creepy Towers boarding school. Anyone would be able to tell that from sitting down for five minutes at the dinner table with the rest of the inhabitants.

But that night, dinner was quiet. Too quiet, thought Mick. In fact, it'd already been seven minutes in and no one had started a food fight. And Mick never would have admitted it, but he was almost starting to miss it. Anything was better than just sitting in dead silence.

But life was full of surprises, and so was Anubis House. After all, everyone knew that Anubis House couldn't be dead silent for _too _long.

"Wow, everyone sure is quiet today," Jerome said, propping his chin on his hand, wearing his signature smirk. "Especially you, Patricia." He turned to the redhead. "You almost _always _have something to say."

If this had been anybody else - say Amber or Mara - then everyone else would have immediately jumped in to defend them. But Jerome was clever, and knew that no one would do that for Patricia. Everyone knew that Patricia fought her own battles and that if anyone else tried to, she would cut them deep and wide.

Patricia lifted her head from her plate and sent him a chilling glare. "Shut it, Clarke."

Jerome raised his hands in surrender. "Ouch," he said, pretending to be hurt.

Everyone snuck glances between Patricia and Jerome, hiding their surprise. Normally Patricia would give him a long death threat. Or pour something on him. Or possibly something even more drastic. But no: just a chilling glare and a "shut it."

"Oh, come on," Jerome cried, looking around the table. "Everyone at school is talking about it! Why aren't you?"

"Jerome-"

"I mean, isn't anyone else surprised? Who would've thought Patricia was the only one in the house that'd never been kissed before?" Everyone awkwardly shifted in their seats and Patricia angrily stabbed her meatloaf, trying not to blow up. "I mean, the first person I would've guessed would've been Mara, if anything."

Mara cringed noticeably.

"Jerome!" Fabian cried. "Stop it."

"Aw, how cute," Jerome sneered. "The two nerds defending each other. Actually, Mara, I'm sorry - I take back my previous statement. If I could have guessed anyone, it would have been Stutter Rutter over here. But I guess there are some girls out there that must find awkwardness extremely appealing."

Fabian glared at the blonde but said nothing, angrily taking a bite out of his bread roll.

"But come on, Trixie," Jerome turned to the redhead, who was now angrily clenching her fork in her fist. "I thought you had more of a life than th-"

It happened in a flash. One moment Jerome was wearing his signature annoying smirk, the next he was letting out a scream of pain as an angry Patricia stood over him, a teapot clenched in her hand. Everyone at the table gasped, and Mick hid a smirk. There's _the Patricia we all know and love, _he thought to himself.

"At least everyone doesn't completely and totally hate me and I don't have to pull everyone down to my level to feel better about myself," Patricia hissed at the blonde, storming from the room.

Jerome jumped up, grabbing a towel and repetitively swearing as he rushed off to his room to clean himself up and make sure he wouldn't have permanent scars from where the hot tea had landed on him.

"Crap, I should go see if he's okay," Alfie mumbled, moving to stand up, but Mara stopped him.

"Alfie, do you know how to treat burns?" Sheepishly, Alfie shook his head. "I should probably go help him," she sighed.

She left the room, Alfie slowly sitting back down in his seat. "So...who's going to go talk to Patricia?" Almost as soon as the words had left his mouth, Alfie, Fabian, and Amber's fingers flew up to their noses, all of them turning to stare at Mick.

Mick groaned. "C'mon, you guys. How old are we, four?"

"You know the rules, Mick," Alfie declared, his finger never leaving his nose.

Mick sighed loudly, but shoved his chair back, getting up and slowly walking up the stairs until he was standing in front of the door to the room that Patricia and Joy shared. Taking a deep breath, he knocked lightly at the door. "Hey, Patricia? Er...it's Mick."

After a few minutes, the door opened. An angry Patricia stood there, looking at him expectantly.

Mick tried to think of something clever or self-encouraging, but could think of nothing else but a lame, "Uh...hi."

Patricia raised an eyebrow. "Noes goes, huh?"

Mick let out a relieved sigh, glad that he wouldn't have to pretend that he'd willingly come up there to check on her well-being. Not that he _didn't _care about her well-being...it was just...nevermind.

"Yeah. Mara was busy taking care of Jerome, so..." Mick shrugged and Patricia hid a smirk, obviously proud of her behavior. "You know Trudy's going to kill you for that, right?"

Patricia shrugged. "Eh, well. He deserved it."

Mick smirked. "Yeah, he kind of did." He peeked behind her and into the room. "Uh...can I come in?"

Patricia sighed lightly. "Yeah, I guess," she said, holding open the door as he walked in. Patricia plopped down onto her bed, Mick tentatively sitting down on Joy's empty bed across from her.

"So...is Joy having fun in..." Mick then realized he had no idea where Joy was. "Is she having fun on her cruise?"

Patricia shrugged. "I don't know. No cell reception, remember?"

"Oh." Mick said awkwardly. "Right."

The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence, Mick wishing he could be anywhere but there. This really was Mara's forte. She never had to be sent to comfort someone - she just _did. _It was her thing, and she was good at it. As satisfying as it was to hear Jerome's scream of pain, he really wished that Patricia had thrown the pitcher of water on him instead, so that Mara could be here instead of him.

"You know...it's okay." Mick began awkwardly. Patricia looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "That you've never had your first kiss, I mean."

Patricia scoffed. "I appreciate the effort, Mick, but seeing as you've most likely kissed every girl at the school, your efforts are wasted."

"I haven't kissed every girl at our school." The redhead just snorted in response, not looking up at him. "Patricia?"

Patricia sighed. "What?" She was starting to wish that he would just leave already so she could be alone again.

Mick stared at Joy's bare mattress, avoiding the red head's gaze. "Um...can you keep a secret?"

"Better than Amber," said Patricia flippantly.

Mick glanced at the door to the room, making sure it was shut. Then he took a deep breath. "I've never had my first kiss, either," he blurted. Patricia laughed out loud. "I really haven't," Mick said honestly.

"Mick, you're the most popular boy in this school. Half of the girls are running after you, begging you to go out with them. How do you expect me to believe that you've never _once_ been kissed before?" Patricia said, narrowing her eyes. "Besides, Amber told me today that you _and _your whole football team told each other who their first kiss was."

"I was lying," Mick admitted.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Patricia demanded.

"You don't believe me." Mick stated. Patricia raised her eyebrows, and Mick laughed, almost bitterly. "Of course you don't believe me. I'm supposed to be the most popular boy at the school and everyone's supposed to look up to me and envy me but guess what? _I'm not that special. _I've never even kissed a freaking girl because I'm scared of commitment and doing it wrong and that it won't have the right timing and pretty much _everything _and I'm really just a huge, stupid loser."

A heavy silence hung in the air, Patricia's eyes widening at Mick's outburst. Mick, on the other hand, was busy glaring down at his shoes, wishing he could go back in time and put his hand to his nose faster and make a vow to himself to never try to comfort anyone ever again because who knew what terrible insecurity he'd spit out the next time.

"You've seriously never kissed anyone?" Patricia asked softly, breaking the silence.

Mick sighed. "Nope," he said, shaking his head.

Patricia looked down, playing with the loose hem of her shirt, her mind reeling. "How?"

Mick laughed humorlessly. "Trust me, the opportunity has come up. But every time I almost do, I just back away. I told you, I'm..." He clenched his eyes shut, his face burning. "Scared," he mumbled the last part.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment. "I'm kind of scared too, you know," Patricia finally said in a quiet voice.

"You? Scared of something?" Mick looked over at her, cracking a half-smile.

"Oh, hardy-har-har," Patricia said drily. Mick just laughed lightly, shaking his head. "But...I don't know. I mean, the opportunity has never really come up...probably because I scare everyone away...but I guess I've just always been scared that I'd do it wrong, and the guy would laugh at me, or something." She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "I don't know, it's stupid-"

"No it's not," Mick murmured. Patricia looked up at him. "I feel that way too," he admitted quietly. "Except for, you know. With a girl. Not a guy."

"I kind of figured that, genius," Patricia sneered in a playful way. Mick grinned slightly, and Patricia sighed again. "It's just...it's just really dumb, though."

"What is?"

"I mean, everyone makes such a _huge _deal over their first kiss. And it's like, if you've never been kissed before, you're some disgrace to society or something."

"Yeah," Mick agreed quietly. "I know."

"But at the same time...I kind of just wish I could get it over with," Patricia admitted. "Just to know what it's like. Just to know that I'm not such a loser. You know?"

"Yeah, tell me about it," said Mick. Suddenly he laughed quietly.

Patricia looked over at him, her eyebrows knitted together in curiosity. "What?"

Mick's cheeks tinged a light pink. "Oh, nothing," he waved his hand dismissively.

"Oh, come on."

"No, seriously, it's nothing."

"Well, you've got to tell me now that you've said something_._"

"No, it's dumb-"

"Mick, seriously, just _tell me._"

Mick sighed. "Fine." He stared at the ground, refusing to meet Patricia's gaze. "Er...I was just thinking...that we-"

"Should kiss?" Patricia finished for him.

Mick looked up, shocked. True, that had been what he was going to say...but hearing out in the open sounded...weird.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Mick mumbled, his face hot.

Patricia hid a smirk, shaking her head. "Nah."

The two of them sat in awkward silence. This was by far the weirdest situation either of them had ever been in. And in a way, it was ironic - until that day, no one at the school would have suspected that either of them had never been kissed before. And, it turned out, neither of them had.

"Well..." Patricia began awkwardly. "Do you want to?"

Mick raised his eyebrows. "Do _you _want to?"

The two of them stared across the room at each other, debating with themselves. "Well, I mean...if it's just to get it over with..." Patricia said tentatively.

Mick was already standing up and moving to sit next to her on the bed. "Yeah. I mean, it's just a kiss. And it's totally and completely _just _to get it over with and just so we'll...know what it's like, and stuff. Nothing more, nothing less. No strings attatched." Patricia looked away awkwardly, and Mick blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, you know what I meant."

"Yeah. Right," Patricia nodded. "And we never tell _anyone, _not for as long as we live."

"Yeah, of course," Mick agreed, nodding.

The two of them sat there, just awkwardly staring at each other. "Well?" Patricia almost demanded, but it was in a softer voice than normal.

Mick rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly leaned forward, closing the gap between them.

And it was awkward. Extremely awkward. In fact, Mick almost withdrew the moment their lips touched. It just felt..._weird. _But he had to give it a shot, right? He'd told Patricia that they were going to do this, and if he'd told her, then they were going to do it.

Mick thought back to everything he knew about kissing - seeing his mates snog girls, seeing couples in the cinema having a full-on make-out session in the very back row - but his mind drew up a blank. The only thing he could think about was the movie _The Notebook, _which his older sister had forced him to watch a million times over. But he remembered that every time Noah and Alli kissed in that movie, Noah's hands always went _somewhere. _

And anyways, wasn't that some sort of rule or something?

Well, Mick figured he didn't want his first kiss to be a total screwup. So, he followed the rules (of the mythical "Kissing 101" textbook) and moved his hands from their awkward position on his knees, to around Patricia's waist.

Coincidentally, Patricia knew even less about kissing than Mick Campbell did, and it was very evident in the way that she sat there like a lump on a log while Mick was trying to get into it. In fact, she was very positive she was doing the whole entire thing wrong. For one thing, her eyes were wide open - partly because she was still in somewhat of a shock, and partly because she wanted to take everything in and observe it - and for another, as previously mentioned, she was just _sitting there _like some sort of _loser._

That's when the voice in the back of her head that occasionally gave her advice kicked in. _Patricia Williamson. This is your first kiss. Don't just sit there, _do _something._

So, Patricia closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around Mick's neck, and kissed him back.

And Mick's lips were nice and plump, and Patricia's were surprisingly soft, despite her tough personality. And Mick kind of liked it. So, almost nervously, he tightened his grip around Patricia's waist, pulling her closer to him, until she was almost sitting in his lap. And Patricia moved her arms from around his neck and into his blonde hair, running her fingers through it and tousling it around. What had started out as a simple kiss was escalating, and although the two of them knew that they'd never really had experience with kissing before, they decided right then that they really liked it, and they wanted more of it. So Patricia slowly moved her arms back down to Mick's neck, forcing him even closer, and Mick gently pushed Patricia until she was pressed up against the headboard of her bed.

And there the two of them were, sitting on Patricia's bed, kissing. Patricia Williamson and Mick Campbell. The school jock and the goth pixie. They weren't even really friends - whenever they did talk to each other, it was usually out of obligation of being polite, since they both belonged to the same house. They didn't fit in any way, shape, or form. They were fire and water, black and white, hot and cold. They were a completely impossible match, and both of them knew it.

But right in that moment, all of that just sort of faded away. Right in that moment, they were just Mick and Patricia - two people who had more in common than they thought. Two friends trying to help each other out. Two people kissing each other, and, despite all odds, _really_ enjoying it.

That was, until there was a knock at the door.

And just like that, the two of them leapt away from each other like the other was on fire, Mick straightening his shirt and Patricia fixing her hair, both of them blushing furiously. Mick jumped up as the person outside the room knocked on the door again. "Er, um, I'll-" Mick stammered out, his mouth unable to make coherent sentences as he stumbled over his feet trying to reach the door.

He finally tugged it open to reveal Jerome Clarke on the other side, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "What are you still doing in here? We all thought you'd left-"

"LeavingnowbyePatricia," Mick jumbled out quickly, walking past Jerome and down the stairs and back to his own room.

"Yeah, uh, bye," Patricia said softly, still shocked. She'd just kissed Mick Campbell. No, she hadn't just kissed him, she'd _kissed him _kissed him. And she'd actually _liked _it.

"Uh, earth to Patricia?"

Patricia jumped up, turning to face Jerome, who looked terribly confused. "Yes?" She asked, straightening her clothes subtly, hoping they weren't too noticeably messed up or anything of the sort.

"Oh," Jerome said awkwardly, his gaze dropping to the floor. "Uh..." He rubbed the back of his neck, and sighed. "I came up here to...er...apologize," he mumbled.

Patricia pushed her previous encounter with Mick out of her brain, and focused on the current situation at hand. "What was that, slimeball? I couldn't hear you. I hope the hot tea didn't damage your vocal chords," she said with fake concern.

Jerome narrowed his eyes. "You're hilarious," he said drily. "Anyways...I've come to the realization that...it was really wrong of me to spread that rumor around...especially since I wasn't sure if it was true or not...even though it was..." _Not anymore, _Patricia couldn't help but think to herself. "Anyways, it was a really wrong thing to do, and because of me, everyone's caused you a lot of grief, so, I'm sorry."

Jerome snuck a glance at the redhead, who rolled her eyes. Although she thought Jerome was a total slimeball, she _did _enjoy his friendship...from time to time, at least. "You're forgiven. For now." Jerome shot her a tiny grin. "And, I'm sorry for pouring hot tea on you. I probably could've chosen a cooler beverage, at least."

"You think?" Jerome rolled up his sleeve to reveal scalding marks. They weren't too horrible, but still. "Do you know how long these are going to be here, Trixie? _Six months,_" he wailed. "And you're lucky the tea wasn't that hot. Mara said that it was only warm, but if it had been hot, I could have _died._"

Patricia winced slightly. She hadn't thought of that. "I really am sorry," she said sincerely.

Jerome rolled his eyes. "It's fine. Mara fixed it, I guess." He shoved his hands in his pockets, lifting an eyebrow and looking at the redhead curiously. "So...are we cool?"

Patricia sighed. "I guess so," she said grudgingly.

Jerome grinned. "Great. Well, looks like my work here is done. Bye!"

And with that, he dashed off. Patricia rolled her eyes and closed the door behind him, plopping onto her bed and burying her face into the duvet.

She'd had a _very _long day.

**x.X.x**

The next day during school lunch, Jerome Clarke got up, stood on the podium in the front of the lunchroom, and announced to everyone in the entire school that he'd spread the rumor about Patricia never having kissed anyone, and that it was very wrong of him and he was very sorry, and it was most likely not true, anyways.

"Mara put him up to it," Alfie said to a very shocked Patricia. Patricia looked over at him, her eyebrows raised. Alfie pointed to the short brunette, who stood by the podium, watching Jerome with her arms crossed in front of her chest, a very smug smile on her face.

"Wow," Patricia whistled. "Who knew that innocent little Mara could be so persuasive?"

"Yeah," Alfie nodded as Jerome finished his apology, trudging down the steps and muttering about something as Mara shook her head, giving him a quick hug, causing his whining to cease, an idiotic smile plastered onto his face. "Or maybe she just has more of an effect on him than she thought."

Patricia just shrugged, returning to her lunch.

Despite what a manipulative slimeball Jerome Clarke was, everyone seemed to listen to his message, and no one mentioned Patricia's lack of kissing experience ever again. She had a small hunch that Jerome had gone up to a few people and personally threatened to beat them up and/or have someone else beat them up if they ever spoke of it - something that, Patricia was sure, had _not _been Mara's idea. She made a note in her head to do something nice for Jerome at some point later on.

(After all, she did sort of owe him, now that she'd nearly caused his death and he'd defended her in front of the entire school shortly afterwards.)

Amber came up to her after lunch, once again, begging her for forgiveness and going on about how terribly wrong she was and that she'd hit Robert (the boy that had spilled to Jerome) with her heavy and dangerous purse multiple times for spilling the whole thing and that Patricia was right and that she was a horrible person. After a lot of rambling from Amber's side and a lot of reluctance on Patricia's side, the redhead finally forgave her, causing a small squeal of excitement from the blonde as she wrapped her up in a bone-crushing hug.

Joy came back five days later, with a nice tan and a full bag of souvenirs for everyone in the house. "What did I miss?" She asked later when she and Patricia were in their room alone. For a second, Patricia debated telling her everything - after all, not even _Joy_ knew that she'd never been kissed before. But then she decided against it.

"Nothing, really," said Patricia, shrugging. "Same old, same old."

In a matter of days, everything was back to normal.

Everything, that was, except for Patricia and Mick's relationship.

Not that they'd ever had a relationship in the first place.

But that kiss changed everything between the two of them. Whenever one of them was within eight feet of the other, you could practically _feel _the awkward. They didn't speak a word to each other for the next three months - if one of them were sitting at the table when the other walked in, their face would burn and they would stare at their plate as if it had become the most interesting thing in the world. They avoided each other at all costs, even refusing to be in the same room as one another unless absolutely necessary.

And even after all that time, they still weren't sure what to make of their kiss. People always talked about fireworks going off in their heads when they kissed, and moments of pure passion...but was what had happened between _them_ like that? They'd never had feelings for each other before the kiss or anything...but still, the two of them weren't sure.

Seven months after the whole fiasco, Mick finally asked Amber out. She, of course, said yes, causing great relief amongst the Anubis House students - they'd all been dying for them to cut the act and just date already.

Everyone, that is, except for Mara Jaffray and Patricia Williamson.

It was for obvious reasons with Mara. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she, the nerdy girl that everyone overlooked, had a crush on Mick Campbell. She pretended to be happy for her friend, but in all honesty, she was so jealous of Amber that it hurt.

Patricia's case was different. She didn't mind Amber and Mick's relationship too much, but every time the two of them kissed, something stirred inside her...and it was jealousy. Maybe it was because Mick had moved on to kissing someone else, and she still hadn't, or maybe it was something else entirely. Naturally, she expected the feelings of jealousy to go away after a while of the two of them dating.

But they didn't.

The rest of the term and the summer holidays passed in a blur, and soon enough, it was August, and it was time for the new term. Joy left two weeks in and Nina came to take her place, Mick and Amber broke up, and Mick and Mara went out.

Mara came to Patricia quite often, asking for advice about "the whole Mick equation", as she liked to call it. Patricia did her best to help her (that is, when she wasn't wrapped up in the whole Sibuna mystery), but often times, the advice that came out of her mouth was not something that she meant to say.

Often times, she found herself telling Mara not to go for it - that Mick was a player and that he would hurt her. And there was a ring of truth to those words - Mick was known around the school for being a player. But Patricia, and _only _Patricia, knew forherself that he was, in fact, not a player at all.

So it didn't make much sense as to why she kept telling Mara that. Because she had _nothing _with Mick. She'd shared her first kiss with him a year ago, and she should've forgotten about it by now.

But, for some reason, she still hadn't.

And she wondered if normal people never forgot their first kiss, either. She wondered if normal people still clung onto it like it was a childhood toy.

Mick certainly didn't seem to.

Almost all too quickly, after Ankh pieces, secret visits to the cellar, proms, and being locked in history classrooms by a fruit loop, the next term came, and everything changed.

The first big change was when Mick announced that he was moving to Australia for a sports scholarship. It blew everyone away, and everyone was completely heartbroken (except for maybe not Jerome so much).

Coincidentally, both Patricia and Mick debated on talking to one another before Mick left and bringing up their kiss two years ago - if only to have a quick laugh about it, if anything. But they decided against it. After all, they both figured that the other probably didn't even remember it, anyways.

After Mick and Mara's heartbreaking goodbye, Mick took a cab and walked out of the lives of the inhabitants of Anubis House, and two days later, something else walked right in.

That something else was Eddie Miller.

And he sure was something else, alright.

And Patricia had fancied boys before - tiny little crushes that lasted for a month, at the latest. But Eddie Miller was _so_ much different. Eddie Miller was the first boy she ever really, properly liked.

And Patricia wasn't really sure if she would have kissed him if she'd actually had a voice (thanks, Senkhara). She liked to tell herself she would have at some point, but she knew there was a slim chance of that. Patricia wasn't even sure how it happened, really - all she knew was that for what felt like the first time in her life, she liked a boy that liked her back and wasn't intimidated by her and actually liked spending time with her.

"Come on, you're killing me," Eddie was saying exasperatedly. And she could see it in his eyes - he was going to leave. He was going to leave and absolutely everything would be ruined because _she didn't have a freaking voice and she couldn't tell him all the things she so desperately wanted to. _"What do I have to do to get a reaction?"

So, Patricia did the only thing she could think of.

She gave him a reaction.

It wasn't until later than Patricia was actually reminded of her real first kiss, when she'd been avoiding Eddie for the past few days. (Why? Because she was stupid and embarrassed and had no idea where to go from that point in their relationship or what she and Eddie even _were _now.)

"I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it," Joy was saying to a mute Patricia as the two of them sat in the room they shared with Mara - who was probably off doing something with Jerome - and talking the whole thing over. "It's not like you've never kissed a boy before."

Patricia blushed, shrugging.

Joy's eyes widened and she jumped up, moving to sit next to Patricia on her bed. "Patricia, you've never kissed _anyone_?"

In truth, Patricia had almost forgotten that Joy had been on a cruise the week of the whole "Patricia's never been kissed" fiasco. And for a second, she almost told her about the whole thing. _You're the only one at the whole school that doesn't know I've never been kissed because you were on a cruise and I told Amber and Mara and Amber told the whole football team and then Jerome found out and spread it around the school and everyone laughed and then I found out that Mick had never kissed anyone either so we decided to kiss each other to get it over with._

But then Patricia remembered that she and Mick had promised to never tell anyone about the whole thing for the rest of their lives.

And that she didn't even have a voice.

So instead, Patricia just shook her head.

Patricia told Eddie later that he was her first kiss, as well. (Well, not exactly told. More like typed it out to him on the computer.) And for a few minutes, she felt really guilty about it - she'd lied to her boyfriend and her best friend about never being kissed before. Even though she and Mick had both promised to never tell anyone about it, she still felt like what she was doing was wrong. Besides, Eddie didn't even _know _Mick. Why would he even care?

But then everything dawned on Patricia a few minutes later, when Eddie was just sitting across the table, giving her a big, goofy smile that was somehow completely adorable.

And she realized right then that her kiss with Mick really was nothing.

It had been great, it had been nice, it had even been kind of special, but it would never compare to what she and Eddie shared. Because she and Eddie had actual feelings for each other - not feelings that Patricia convinced herself she had just because of one kiss.

And yes, Mick had _technically _been her first kiss.

But in reality, he wasn't, and she wasn't lying to Eddie or Joy at all.

Her kiss with Mick had been far longer, sure...but when she'd kissed Eddie, she'd felt something. Like, _really _felt something. And it sounded cheesy, but after she'd kissed Eddie, she suddenly understood all of the girls in she and Joy's rom-coms that got butterflies and firework explosions in their head.

And at that moment, she did something that she was sure Mick had done ages ago.

She pushed her "first" kiss behind her and moved forward in her relationship with Eddie.

**A/N: **Yeah...so...this turned out kind of different than I expected to...it was supposed to be a Micktricia fic but it kind of turned into Micktricia with eventual Peddie and a dash of Jara, Mickber, and Mickra plus Patrome friendship on the side and slight OOCness...so if you actually read all nineteen and a half pages of this randomness then props to you.

Happy belated Thanksgiving :D


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